Herbaria
Among my various interests, plants perhaps capture my attention the most. I spend a considerable amount of time collecting outside of the Museum, where I judiciously pick the leaves of wild leeks just as the ground begins to warm in the May sun, or harvest the roots of matured dandelions later in the season. I'm quite fond of my own assortment of medicinal plants stored in various re-used jars at home, and it doesn't bother me one bit to be in charge of over 1,200 plants as Curator at the Museum.
The Museum's collection of pressed plant specimens is referred to as the "herbarium." While the historical use of the term is not ancient, it developed out of a similar practice of saving reference plants centuries ago. "Herbarium" is a Latin compound term formed from the stem of herba (meaning plant or herb) and arium (often denoting a place or receptacle). The earliest recognized forms of herbaria came about many centuries ago, during which physicians cultivated medicinal plants and then saved specimens for future reference. These plant specimens were stored in bound books, so needed to be pressed flat in order to preserve their structural integrity. With reference plants on-hand, physicians as well as botanists were able to better identify and compare the plants that they worked with.
Although the Museum's plant specimens did not originate many hundreds of years ago, some were compiled in a similar manner. One of my very favorite pieces out of the entire collection is a scrapbook of herbarium specimens prepared by a local woman named Margaret Fitch. What makes this book so special? All specimens had been collected over a century ago in 1896 and bound in an old, smelly book. I love finding the occasional opportunity to slip on my cotton gloves and slowly open each page to the yet pigmented plants and careful penmanship of a long-ago era. Margaret had created a fascinating time capsule, and while I have yet to find much on her life, she did leave behind information on the natural world as she had experienced it long ago.
Of the Museum's individual collections, our herbarium is probably the least familiar to visitors. Delicate specimens of pressed plants have not historically been displayed at the same volume or frequency as our taxidermy mounts, but we shouldn't let that be an indicator of their importance. Herbariums throughout the world have served as records of change throughout time, as resources to study plant taxonomy or ecology, and have provided material for a number of other inquiries about our natural world for many hundreds of years. I'm still discovering what our own herbarium may add to our local knowledge, but know that the possibilities are numerous.
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| The Museum's 1,200+ specimen herbarium is organized taxonomically in various folders. |
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| This violet specimen was collected in the 1890's near a railroad track in Hayward, WI. With careful preservation, it has held much of its color over the years. |
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| This specimen of a marsh violet was collected in 1974. Having multiple specimens of a particular species collected during various points in time helps us to acknowledge changes in the landscape over time. |
Click here to read a list of the various ways in which herbariums are useful, compiled by members of the US National Herbarium.